Malaysia wins second prize at ACL festival 2014 Japan
Malaysia has won second prize at the recent ACL Festival in Japan, with representative Ainolnaim Azizol nearly clinching the top prize for the first time in our nation's history. This is the second time Malaysia's entry has won a prize at the regional festival in a span of four years. The Kuantan composer's challenging work Fragments I for trumpet duo was a fine representation of the best of Malaysian contemporary music, with its bold vision and audacious originality. Ainolnaim's work begins with an interplay of extended s…
Inheritance: Interview with Ramon P Santos
As contemporary art music goes global, Ramon Pagayon Santos searches the Asian soul - Off The Edge, April 2007 The Asian composer faces a very special dilemma by nature of his or her profession - the struggle against the dissonances that arise between the inherited traditions of the East and the acquired compositional tools of the West. At the Asia Pacific Festival and Conference 2007, where past met present and the avant-garde met the traditional in meaningful counterpoint, the issue seemed all the more relevant. Whose music were we cele…
Call for scores: 15 Minutes of Fame
UPDATE: 15 Minutes of Fame - 15 one-minute piano works + 15 one-minute short films (15 Sep 2014) We have invited composers from Malaysia and ACL to compose a one-minute piano work for the project. The selected pieces will be performed by a Malaysian pianist and will go on to inspire Malaysian film artists to create a one-minute short film to the music soundtrack. MCC received entries from all over Asia, from Taiwan to New Zealand and beyond, a wonderful kaleidescope of varying musical views on the subject. Presently the pianists are reh…
Zen from the north: Johan Othman's second opera in progress
As the curtain comes down on 2013, composers of Malaysian art music can look back with pride that it has indeed been a fruitful year of activity. Apart from the action-packed ACL festival, and Jessica Cho who is putting together a CD anthology of women Malaysian composers, up north in Penang Johan Othman for example is still busy penning away notes to score after premiering his wind octet in KL with the High Winds Ensemble led by oboist-conductor Joost Flach. And having just completed music to the play 'The Sandpit' at Penang Perfo…
Tracking our new music since 1995
Here is a roundup of premieres of Malaysian works at home and abroad. Since the mid-90s Malaysian works have been performed largely abroad, but from the 2000s onwards has increasingly been heard at home as well. Local works are becoming a part of the country's busy concert schedule, as well as abroad, such as the regular Asian Composers League festivals around the region. You can peruse scores and recordings of many of these works at MCC's digital library in Petaling Jaya. October 2018, Matera, Italy Ainolnaim Azizol JuliJuli…
Piano Gala 2014 at KL Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on 16 March
Catch composer pianist Ng Chong Lim and a lineup of the country's best pianists in a marathon concert that includes the work of Tazul Tajuddin. Concert from 1pm - 6pm.
Nature, nurture and mixed marriages
Ng Chong Lim talks about mixing western music with gamelan and the joy of writing for children. Gamelan has long captivated the imagination of modern composers both abroad and local, and a number of great masters such as Benjamin Britten and Francois Poulenc and countless Americans, have fallen in love with its mesmerising sounds and created works with the hypnotic gong rhythms in mind. But bringing actual gamelan players into an essentially Western music composition style has always posed problems for composers and performers alike. B…
Of superheroes, tempoyak and singing in the shower
Kelantan-born composer Ainolnaim Azizol finds a good long shower whets his imagination for contemporary classical music. The exhilaration of water splashing on one’s face, the fragrance of soap rising with the steam, the utter freedom of being unclothed, the intimate privacy - there’s something about taking a shower that makes one just want to break out in song. In the case of young Kelantan born composer Ainolnaim Azizol, bathtime inspires not his big break on Akademi Fantasia, but something more sublime. The 26-year-old took the…
Visit the Malaysian composers digital library
The library is available to anyone interested, by appointment. At present it has over 22 hours of Malaysian music, 35+ hours of Asian music and 150+ Malaysian, regional and western scores, and more. Video highlights include Adeline Wong's Lengt for cello, string quartet and multimedia, Johan Othman's first opera Conference of the Birds at its Penang premiere, and Indonesian composers Sinta Wullur's gamelan opera The Liberation of Sita and Tony Prabowo's The King's Witch. Email requests to info@malaysiancomposers.com…
MCC's Free Hand Anthology I has been released on Faber Music.
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